COIL AT JUNCTION
An intergenerational collision between community, artists and the joy of collective movement.
17—19 SEPTEMBER 2026
PRINCE’S SQUARE
7:30PM—7:50pm
tactile tour & audio description show
friday 18th
Tactile tour — 7:00pM
PERFORMANCE with audio description — 7:30pm
ABOUT COIL
COIL is an inclusive, intergenerational collision between community, artists and the joy of collective movement.
Led by Tasdance Executive Director Adam Wheeler and featuring 10 professional dancers, Stompin, and 60 local dance lovers, and the world’s most popular toy, COIL uses slinkies as a tactile partner to explore analogue play and the human need for connection in an increasingly digital world. Dancers negotiate tension, resistance, and release, making relationships visible through physical cause and effect.
As the work builds to its feel-good, participatory conclusion, COIL utilises the power of en masse partnering to extend a festival-wide invitation to creative connection and play.
COIL is the sister project to Tasdance’s recent new work DOUBLE SLINK.
CREATIVE TEAM
LEAD ARTIST ~ ADAM WHEELER
COMMUNITY COLLABORATORS ~ SARAH GROTH & IZZY LOCKETT
PROFESSIONAL ENSEMBLE ~ Bernadette Lewis, GabrielLe Martin, Jacqui Maida, Reuben Macdougall Di Manno, Kelly Mc Clymont, Toby McKnight, Sarah GROTH, Izzy Lockett
SOUND ARTIST ~ IAN CHIA
SPACE DESIGN ~ CHRIS ‘WOLFE’ MCBRIDE
PROJECT MANAGER ~ SARAH GROTH
AUDIO DESCRIPTION ~ Olivia Bowman
MEET THE ARTISTS
IAN
CHIA
Ian Chia is a Tasmanian interdisciplinary artist. He works across composition, sound design, filmmaking, creative technology and dramaturgy, creating performance and media works shaped by movement and responsive systems. His practice links sound, physicality, image and digital processes to form hybrid environments where media interacts with the body. With more than thirty years of cross-disciplinary experience, he develops new artistic forms that merge theatrical, choreographic and media-based dramaturgies.
BERNADETTE LEWIS
Bernadette Lewis is a dance artist working across performance, choreography, improvisation, education, and community engagement. She is a participating artist in Assembly 197’s SITUATE 26-27 Young Worlds program.
Her performance and choreographic work spans dance, theatre, community, and site-responsive contexts, including Acid Trip (Off-base Dance), Foleyvision (Scott Elstermann), Unearthly (with Natalie Allen for Perth Festival), The Honeymoon Suite, Oklahoma! (Black Swan State Theatre), and Experience Collider (DADAA and Circus WA for Awesome Arts Festival).
Bernadette believes deeply in the transformative power of movement and is passionate about sharing her wealth of embodied knowledge with people of all ages and abilities.
GABRIELLE MARTIN
Gabby Martin is a contemporary dancer, emerging choreographer, and dance educator, raised in north-west Lutruwita/Tasmania, where she swims, climbs, surfs, mountain bikes, and works professionally as a bushwalking and canyoning guide. This relationship is integral to how she thinks about creative, theatrical, and physical risk in performance — she's drawn to performance that risks something real, on-stage or site-specific, virtuosic partner work, improvisation, and a theatrical, unpolished honesty.
Recent highlights include presenting work in Berlin at the b12 Festival, participating in the Mavericks program (2026) alongside Shannon Gillen and Scott Jennings, and participating in Impulstanz's ATLAS choreographic residency in Vienna (2024). She's rehearsal-directed MADE's remount of Emma Porteus's HandMade, co-directed Drill with Isabella Stone, and made work with Great Southern Dance Company on Hiero and Behaviourology (both 2025).
Community sits at the centre of how she works. She has taught classes with Drill, Second Echo Ensemble, Assembly 197 and MADE that regularly sell out, and joined the Stompin board in 2026. When she's not in the studio, she's probably underwater, up a mountain, or working on the tiny house she's currently building in northwest Lutruwita.
JACQUI
MAIDA
Calling Lutruwita/Tasmania home, Jacqui Maida is a movement educator and dancer specialising in youth dance practice and improvisation. Recently appointed as Artistic Director of Stompin (Launceston), they have relocated from Naarm/Melbourne after tending to rich relationships in the Melbourne improvisation landscape, as well as the state’s youth dance company Yellow Wheel (est. 2012). They are committed to manifesting creative environments that are joyous, autonomous and personal.
Jac carried out four years of leadership as both Artistic Associate and Executive Assistant with Yellow Wheel, whilst teaching in a broad range of locations across the state. They are consistently developing their skills in pastoral care, choreographic construction, mentorship, producing and community building, and have been a dance educator for eleven years. They have ongoing relationships with Fling Physical Theatre (Bega), Quantum Leap Australia (Canberra), Ausdance Victoria/Australia, and Tasdance, and have danced in numerous independent dance performances over the past seven years.
REUBEN MACDOUGALL DI MANNO
Reuben is a dancer. They grew up on the land of the Dja Dja Wurrung people and recently moved to Lutruwita. Reuben loves improvising, collaborating, and asking provocative questions. When not in rehearsal, catch them reading, diving into a new system, planning class, or playing a board game. Watch for Reuben’s distinctive low tone and movement from distal points!
CHRIS ‘WOLFE’
MCBRIDE
Chris “Wolfe” McBride is a Production Manager, Lighting Designer, and Theatre/Festival technician based out of Lutruwita, Tasmania. Holding a Graduate Diploma in Artificial Intelligence and a Bachelor of Applied Information Technology, Chris draws on extensive experience and knowledge in theatre and festival technology, including Lighting, AV, audio, and basic rigging. Chris has experience in Management roles for festivals and organisations such as Dark Mofo, Adelaide Festival, Ten Days on the Island, Theatre Royal, Assembly 197, and Strut & Fret. As a designer, Chris works with multiple Tasmanian and NT theatre companies and has won a Tasmanian Theatre Award for his work on Medus Waking. Chris uses technical expertise to realise artistic visions in accessible ways for creatives and audiences. Chris prioritises diverse and supportive work environments, including environmental, cultural, gender, and LGBTQ inclusivity. Chris recognises that he works on First Nations land.
KELLY McCLYMONT
Kelly is an emerging contemporary artist from the North-West Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania. Her practice is shaped by improvisation, drawn to the spontaneity of movement and how music influences the body moving through space. After completing her contemporary dance training at Transit Dance in 2024, she undertook a secondment with Tasdance during the development of Double Slink and participated in the Dancers are Dancing intensive, working with Trà Mi Dinh, Jo Lloyd, Joel Bray, CONJAH and Alisdair Macindoe.
Kelly is curious about what emerges when instinct, sound and physicality meet. She finds inspiration through collaboration and aspires to take her practice overseas, broadening her experience and deepening her artistry.
TOBY
MCKNIGHT
Toby McKnight (he/him) is an emerging dance artist currently based in Melbourne/Naarm.
Growing up in Lutruwita/Tasmania, Toby relocated in 2022 to further his training and immerse himself in the diverse Melbourne dance scene. During his time in Lutruwita, Toby was a member of Stompin Youth Dance company for over 7 years, performing in several works by Alisdair Macindoe, James Batchelor, Adam Wheeler, Jack Zeising and Jenni Large for major Tasmanian arts festivals such as Ten Days on the Island, Mona Foma and Junction Arts Festival. He was a collaborator in Tasdance’s ‘Reactor’ for Mona Foma 2020, and in 2021 he danced on the Burnie foreshore at sunrise as part of David Mangenner Gough’s ‘mapali – Dawn Gathering’, the opening of Ten Days on the Island that year.
Since moving from Lutruwita, Toby has performed with QL2, been in two Yellow Wheel major works and performed in Tamara Cubas’ ‘Multitude’ as part of the RISING festival. With a passion for accessibility and availability of dance, Toby is drawn to the communities dance creates and brings together. Toby is keen to further his professional practice and explore how dance can respond to and shift the socio-political landscape in which it sits.
SARAH
GROTH
Sarah Groth’s practice is rooted in place, landscape, and a deep love of the Earth. Her work spans dance, improvisation, choreography, writing, mixed-media visual art, project management, and producing. Born and raised on Tiwa homelands in New Mexico, Sarah holds a BA in Contemporary Dance and Intercultural Communications from the University of New Mexico and lived and worked in Nicosia, Cyprus from 2019–2020, collaborating on site-specific works exploring the Green Line and divided landscapes. Her practice has taken her across Europe, Asia, and Australia, including participation in ImpulsTanz, the Albuquerque Contemporary Dance Festival, HANNIBAL, MAKE, and the UETF Resiliency Residency. She is now based in lutruwita/Tasmania.
Sarah works across Lutruwita/Tasmania as an artist, facilitator, and project coordinator with Tasdance and Assembly 197. She is the ARTERY Coordinator at Tasdance, organising and facilitating arts programs across schools, communities, and youth justice contexts, and is Project Coordinator for DOUBLE SLINK, supporting slow touring and regional youth engagement. Her Tasdance collaborations include performing in BEACON with 10 Day on the Island, Alisdair Macindoe’s PLAGIARY, LITTLE GEM, and DANCEWEEKENDER with Junction Arts Festival. She is currently a Community Collaborator and Project Coordinator for Tasdance’s COIL, an inclusive, intergenerational collision between community, artists, and the joy of collective movement. Her socially engaged practice is committed to regional contexts, youth engagement, community connection, and movement grounded in place, play, and shared experience.
IZZY
LOCKETT
Izzy Lockett is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer and teacher based in Lutruwita/Tasmania. She trained in contemporary dance in Melbourne before returning to Tasmania, where she has worked extensively with Tasdance across performance, choreography and community engagement.
Izzy has worked with Tasdance as a choreographer and collaborating artist on projects including DOUBLE SLINK, a professional duet meeting community and uncoiling our instinct for play and connection, which toured regional communities and schools across North West Tasmania, and BEACON, an intergenerational work exploring place, climate change, connection and the power of gathering. She is currently a community collaborator on COIL, Tasdance’s new work.
Izzy is actively engaged in dance education and community practice through her work with Tasdance, delivering workshops through The Smith Family’s SmArts program and facilitating weekly movement sessions at Ashley Youth Detention Centre. Through these programs, she works with diverse communities to create accessible and meaningful opportunities for connection, creative expression and participation through dance.
In 2027, Izzy will head overseas to New York and Berlin to undertake intensive contemporary dance training and immerse herself in the international contemporary dance scene, further developing her practice and artistic experience.
ADAM
Wheeler
Adam is a Tasmanian-born Stompin and Victorian College of the Arts Alumni. Adam has performed with Chunky Move, Jo Lloyd, Circa Nica, 2NDTOE, and Opera Australia. He has created work for Lucy Guerin Inc. (Pieces for Small Spaces), Stompin, QL2, Steps Youth Dance Company, fLing Physical Theatre, Tasdance, and Chunky Move. As an Artistic Director, he founded Yellow Wheel (2012) and 2NDTOE (2007). Led the Australian Youth Dance Festival in 2014 and 2017, The Space School of Performance Arts, and Short+Sweet Dance.
Adam is currently the Executive Director of Assembly 197 and holds the Tasdance, Artery, and Hub Portfolios. Adam is curious about interdisciplinary making, providing pathways for artists to develop practice and getting the community moving — all from his regional home of Lutruwita/Tasmania.